7x7 (11. 758)

pop quiz: extended CVs of classic game show hosts  

pass the mayo: condiment’s dynamic nature could help solve containment challenges for nuclear fusion  

wingnut: a South Berkley salvage store turned museum—via Nag on the Lake’s always excellent Sunday Links  

cocónonós: a Bogota-based fusion band—possibly named after the ill-fated Tiki drink shared with Geordi La Forge and Christy Henshaw on their first date  

bias towards coherence: Trump’s latest on rally attendance and his greatest hits  

the type specimen of humanity: the designated permanent reference for Homo sapiens is Carl Linnaeus  

magick show: Richard Metzger’s latest occult project

 synchronoptica

one year ago: cutting archived content for the sake of SEO (with synchronoptica), a racist brawl in Alabama plus multi-hyphenates

seven years ago: reproductive awareness

eight years ago: ant wars, Martian landscapes, disproportionate and xenophobic calls for burqa bans, a floating home in Canada plus Facebook and clickbait

nine years ago: Liberia and the US 

ten years ago: a party at Neuseenland plus the geopolitics of terrorism

ῑ̓χώρ (11. 757)

Pathologically-speaking, the antiquated term for watery discharge, especially with an offensive odour, was deliberately given in negative connotations by early Christian writers to dispel the last vestiges of pagan veneration for the old gods by turning the ethereal fluid that flows in the veins of the immortals of mythology into something foul and corrupt. Classically ichor was understood to be the blood of the Olympians and—unlike the blood of Christ—was deadly toxic to humans if they came in contact with it. A Cretan myth, later appropriated by the Greeks in the Colossus of Rhodes, told of a giant bronze automaton made by Hephaestus at Zeus’ request to protect Europa and the island from invaders and pirates, this sentinel called Talos circling the shores three times a day, lobbing boulders at approaching ships. The robot was powered by a single circuit vein that ran from its head to its ankle filled with ichor, and was eventually defeated by Jason and the Argonauts with the help of Medea, who told them to unscrew the retaining plug at the base and exsanguinate it. In modern Greek, ichor is also used for the words gravy and naphtha, an older term for petroleum, probably due to the belief it was a by-product of decaying giants.

♨︎ (11. 756)

We very much enjoyed revisiting artist and drafter Honmai Enya’s work (previously) in her newest book of detailed isometric renderings (see also here and here) of Japanese cultural institutions. Honing her architectural illustrations skills at local establishments, Enya’s repertoire spread from her favourite sentō to area laundromats, salons, cafés and kissaten (a quieter version of the former to contemplatively drink one’s coffee or tea). More from Spoon & Tamago at the link above.

8x8 (11. 755)

hillbilly eulogy: the producer’s apparent misjudgement in adapting JD Vance’s memoir—and suggestion that Ron Howard might be playing the long-game to torpedo the MAGA ticket’s chances of ever returning to power—via Miss Cellania  

feint and parry: Ukrainian incursions into Russian territory catches Moscow off guard  

rarissima: bibliolyte, a destroyer of books, and other bookish terms  

veepstakes: the question of casting the nominees on the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live—see previously  

grit and glitter: new Museum of London logo of a pooing pigeon is dividing opinions—via Strange Company—see previously  

schrimp jesus: the origins and drivers (including Meta’s own incentives) of Facebook AI slop—see previously   

human shields: Israeli air strike on Gaza school sheltering the displaced leaves almost one hundred dead—the IDF claiming the building was being used by Hamas agents 

tim walz will teach you how to parallel park: the VP pick’s Midwestern dad energy plus the not so Midwestern origins of ope

garm to ongoing matter (11. 754)

Whereas the prerogative of commercial sponsors is the very definition of free speech, Elon Musk—who previously dismissed advertisers leaving the platform back in 2022 when he took over Twitter and significantly changed the tenor of the dialogue—has sued a small cross-industry initiative run under the non-profit organisation called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media by the World Federation of Advertisers, a consortium of about a hundred member companies, including Unilever, Mars, CVS (an American pharmacy chain) and Ørsted (a Danish energy company, out of existence (at least temporarily), citing anti-trust violations by conspiring to impose an embargo and “demonitise certain viewpoints in order to limit consumer choice.” Founded in the aftermath of the tragic 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings, livestreamed on Facebook and lingered for an uncomfortable amount of time before being taken down, GARM works to promote responsible content moderation to help avoid members’ ads from appearing alongside hate-speech or harmful content. This is not Musk’s first lawsuit against media watchdogs, whose analysis and reporting on content on the platform has led to a mass exodus by users and sponsors and loss of revenue for the company.

synchronoptica

one year ago: language and idiolects (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: a visit to Castle Frankenstein, workplace diversity, the roots of Nintendo plus geopolitical alternatives for a united Europe

eight years ago: lipogrammatical literature plus presidential plushies

ten years ago: embargoes and boycotts

eleven years ago: St Lawrence plus America’s unique global taxation scheme

vpotus (11. 753)

Set aside as an occasion in the US to reflect on the line of succession, the executive branch of the federal government and the constitutional role of the office also empowered to preside (president pro tempore of the legislative branch) over the senate and cast a vote in the case of a tie, National Veep Day recognises all vice presidents, but falling on this date, the observance coincides with the elevation of Gerald Ford at noon on this day in 1974 following the resignation of Richard Nixon—an individual who was elected to neither high office. The twenty-fifth amendment to the American constitution enumerates the order of precedence for filling the vacancy through removal by impeachment or disability, the order next going from speaker of the house of congress, president pro tem of the senate (the most senior member of the majority party) and then to the presidential cabinet: secretary of state, treasury, defence, attorney general, secretary of the interior, agriculture, labour, health and human services, housing and urban development, transportation, energy, education, veterans’ affairs and finally Homeland Security.

ceefax (11. 752)

Via Web Curios, we are referred to a rather stupendous gallery of screen-grabs of broadcast teletext pages (see previously), first introduced in 1974 in data hidden in the signals at the extremes of the TV screen, with an assortment of nostalgic advertisements, closed-captions, games, viewing guides, alpha-mosaic art and news supplements whose rollout preceded and provisioned the internet with this ASCII grid of twenty-four by forty characters with some limited interactive capabilities (in partnership with a phone call usually) accessed by remote control. I remember exploring occasionally these embedded channels (which are mostly still available and offer programme synopses and transcripts) when the parallel online world was not so readily accessible.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a classic from The Small Faces (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: work makes us passionate quitters plus reflections on a total eclipse

eight years ago: misadventures in tourism, Dr Who remixed plus Dr Teeth live in concert

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting

eleven years ago: the origin of kids’ menus and the family restaurant

hasenpfeffer incorporated (11. 751)

While pursuing the long-tail of a rumoured solution to try to satisfy two Hollywood egos both demanding top-billing and one possible and now pervasive compromise, known in the industry as the Laverne & Shirley card, we got the opportunity to revisit The Art of the Title (see previously here and here) and explore some of the creative and contractual considerations that go into opening sequences. And while fascinating to learn about the more elegant and efficient way to make concessions to rising talent (bottom left and top right gives two stars more or less equal prominence), the hook was really the unique stalemate of the 1987 Arthur Hiller Outrageous Fortune comedy featuring Bette Midler and Shelley Long (or Long and Midler) with neither willing to concede to be second-billed. Strangely aligned with the film that takes its title from Hamlet’s “…slings and arrows…” about two acrimonious acting students who are dating the same mysterious individual, unbeknownst to each other, and manages to keep their shared tryst secret, the production studio commissioned two sets of promotional materials and title sequences for distribution in US East Coast and West Coast markets, in the respective actors’ home turf presumably with neither being the wiser—movie lore confirmed by a visit to the last video rental shop in Atlanta. Much more from 99% Invisible at the link above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: artist Karla Knight (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: a proposed canal in Malaysia plus radio for dogs

eight years ago: assorted links to revisit, mass-transit upholstery plus Olympic typography

nine years ago: the Happy Birthday song plus presidential merch

eleven years ago: US government lapse in appropriations plus thoughtful souvenirs

sesquicentennery (11. 750)

Incredibly, especially considering the bureaucracy and controversy that besets modern questions of statehood, as our faithful chronicler informs, on this day in 1953, US president Eisenhower signed a petition from the Ohio general assembly retroactively making it the seventeenth state of the union, backdated one hundred and fifty years and some months to the date when the legislature first convened in 1803. Although president Jefferson had approved the territory’s boundaries and constitution at the time, congress had not formerly ratified the recognition. This oversight was discovered during preparations for Ohio’s upcoming founding anniversary, and while at that point in history, no formal resolution was required for admission, Ohioans wished to correct the record.  This place earning the moniker “mother of presidents” for being the homeland of seven wants to make sure its contributions were legitimate.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a geopolitical map of the internet (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: architect Renzo Picasso plus assorted links to revisit

eight years ago: a puzzle book, ancient air-wells, universal phonetics for numbers plus the art of Clive Barker

nine years ago: psychological terms to be wary of, more links to enjoy, illustrated Moby Dick plus even more links

ten years ago: controversy over a simian selfie

thank you for bringing back the joy (11. 749)

Ninety-one days before the election, Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, during an energetic rally in Philadelphia. A progressive, Democratic leader of a more conservative leaning state since 2019, the charismatic figure earlier represented Minnesota in congress (he was moved to run for office when as a social studies teacher a field trip to a local political rally ended in the group of students not being admitted due to one member having a discrete campaign sticker for the opposition and the whole group was deemed a threat), and previously served in the US national guard and had a successful educator, including exchange programmes with students in China, football coach and has a demonstrated platform supporting LQBTQ+, women’s, consummer and labour rights as well as being the architect of the state’s liberalisation of cannabis policy, infrastructure and environmental improvements and advocacy for the right to protest US-support for Israel in its war on Gaza. Walz is further credited with coining the descriptor “weird” for MAGAists, which has quickly gained currency and widespread use among Democrats.

⊙ (11. 748)

Denoted by the above symbol in international chess notation, we are remembered by New Shelton wet/dry of the term in its literal and metaphorical senses of the disadvantageous requirement to move or otherwise respond in Zugzwang. Although imprecise in its use in the game (a player is said to be in such a prelude to a checkmate when an open option when in a turn-based game each side is compelled to move will worsen their position, the concept is well understood), endgame studies from the eighteenth century on formalised the unsatisfactory compulsion or obligation—Zugpflicht—to make a move that yields to the offence.

saturday nite at the duck-pond (11. 747)

Despite (or possibly because of) a ban by the BBC, the surf-rock 1963 single from The Cougars, a short-lived collaboration of rhythm and bass guitars and percussions, that sampled from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (the theme of Act II commonly known as the Dracula motif for its first use in sound cinematic adaptations of the vampire story and as a trope for other horror films), spent several weeks in the charts. The band also produced other instrumental variations on the composer’s body of work, including “Red Square” and “Caviar & Chips.” Cited as a travesty of a major classical piece and a distortion of melody and harmony, other reasons for the prohibitions on the airwaves included slushy sentimentality, innuendo and alleged drug references with the banned discography ranging from Mott the Hoople, select Beatles’ and Rolling Stones’ songs deemed too suggestive or political, Cher’s “Bang Bang,” “Dinner with Drac” from John Zacherle, “Monster Mash,” “I Don’t Like Mondays,” “In the Hall of Mountain King” the Nero and the Gladiators’ instrumental version and Bobby Darin’s and Louis Armstrong’s “Mack the Knife” takes on The Three Penny Opera. They really seemed to have it out for the undead and adulterated versions of the classics.  After mass protests following the broadcast of a censored version of The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York in 2007, BBC officially dropped its policy of cultural gatekeeping.

* * * * *

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a classic from Lisa Loeb (with synchronoptica) plus a wagon train to space

seven years ago: more meltdowns at the White House, landscaping by AI plus when Americans were weird with science

eight years ago: empty mansion hunting in the Loire valley, emoji as art, more on the birthplace of King Arthur, the first website plus Trump as a Manchurian Candidate

ten years ago: liminal beings plus vanishing New York

eleven years ago: the Church goes after predatory loans plus the German census

8x8 (11. 746)

divi recap: the obfuscating vocabulary of finance and corporate take-overs 

ch₄: methane removal may prove as the most effective way to curb the climate collapse  

anima and archetype: an overview of the thought of Carl Jung—see previously  

mamala: Maya Rudolf returning to the cast and reprising her role as Kamala Harris for the fiftieth season of Saturday Night Live—via Miss Cellania  

v. to remove monks from: demonachise and other infrequently used words  

wall flowers: increased appreciation of complex and nuanced botanical behaviour leads a new branch of plant philosophy  

rewiring: if billionaires truly wanted to save the planet, they’d buy heat-pumps for every home—via Kottke 

big brother and the holding company: the spiteful origins of Berkshire Hathaway and corporate hard-pivots

après moi, le déluge (11. 745)

We recall how a few weeks ago how Trump chillingly implored a group of Christian supporters to vote just once more and they’ll never need worry about doing it again, implying that he would bring about a theocracy, not just a breech of democratic norms—and although we should not dismiss this as hyperbole since he’s shown us who he is and what he’s capable of, Trump cannot run for an additional term and might presumably not care about his political heirs and what happens afterwards. On multiple occasions, however, and without the media attention Trump is telling crowds at his rallies not that they won’t need to cast ballots in the future but that they don’t need to bother showing up at the polls because Trump already has enough votes. Whether saying the quiet part out loud is a sign of delusion or misunderstanding (“My instruction: we don’t need votes—we’ve got plenty of votes.”), it suggests that Trump plans to claim victory regardless of the outcome and belies the fact that behind the scenes election officials have been installed strategically in counties in crucial wing states sympathetic to the narrative of the stolen 2020 election and have a demonstrated record of manipulation and could withhold certification, which would have cascading effect for statewide electors and cause chaos, likely sending the outcome to the US supreme court to decide.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the Anomaly Observatory (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus a very incriminating recording from the Watergate scandal

seven years ago: a musical tailpipe plus the movie role Trump turned down to run for US president

eight years ago: more links to enjoy, a simple political message, an economic nudge plus hybrid airships

nine years ago: even more links, a Norwegian monument plus loosing the plot

ten years ago: yeas and nays plus public health and disease drift

13x13 (11. 744)

hot clipmalabor summer: a Scots language translation of the latest trend 

the pudding: AI makes a data-driven visual story—via Kottke  

désolé! taking a mental health year: American vs European out-of-office auto-replies  

the paris games: a look back at the other times the French capital hosted the Olympics—via Nag on the Lake

faustian bargain: Russian “Tiergarten Killer” released as part of prisoner-swap 

the lord house: a tour of a home designed by architecture Richard Neutra—see previously 

take me to the water: James Baldwin and the roots of the Palestinian-African American solidarity movement 

hop, skip and a jump: e-bikes for one’s legs  

dressage: Snoop Dogg as head Olympic cheerleader 

securing the peace: US mobilising to shore up defences in Middle East 

minoritarian rule: US in democracy self-destruct mode  

yay newfriend: a linguistic look at the new AI pendant companion 

emdunks: the internet’s infatuation with the Second- and possibly future First-Gentleman

say it to my face (11. 743)

After Trump’s initial refusal to participate in a debate with his new challenger was seen as weak, particularly in the racist harangue following shortly afterwards Trump delivered during a panel discussion arranged by the National Association of Black Journalists calling Harris a DEI candidate (an insulting reference to Diversity and Equality Initiatives in the workplace that has become shorthand for the allegation that power and position for people from minority or marginalised groups is unearned), going on to expound that, “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know—is she Indian or is she black?” The multiracial former chief prosecutor, senator and sitting US vice-president is of multiracial background and is both and is only a rehashing of the equally false birtherism rumour that questioned the legitimacy of Barack Obama—and another example of authoritarians othering and defining others instead of allowing them to define themselves. After backing-out didn’t play well with the public, Trump arranged to spar with Harris albeit changing the conditions, pushing back on the new format—from an ABC moderated forum to a townhall-style one with a live studio audience hosted by Fox News, Harris noted how “any time, any place” became “one specific time, one specific safe space,“ for the conservative network’s noted favour for the Republican candidate. Fewer than one hundred days before the election, it is uncertain whether there will be a public parlay in any format.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Arthur Conan-Doyle on tour

seven years ago: Trump’s transcripts, the evolution of trust plus an austerity cookbook for a divided Germany

eight years ago: the first private mission to the Moon

nine years ago: more links to enjoy plus Japanese myth and folklore

ten years ago: dazzle-camo plus novel ideas for carbon-sequestration

katzenkopf ii (11. 742)

Over the weekend, H and I returned with our neighbours and dogs to Frankish wine island of Sommerach, on the loop of the River Main. As the namesake of our campsite, it has one of the more famous and well-distributed vineyards of the region and dating from 1901, the one of the oldest cooperatives (Winzergenossenschaft) in Germany—we get most of our wine from the grocery stores from this area.

Landscaped by the creation of the canal connecting Volkach and Gerlachshausen (see above), the steep sloping hills and unique conditions of the soil, loamy and ancient limestone have made this spot particularly well suited for viticulture for untold generations. 

 For this visit, we toured more of the town and wandered the streets lined with individual wineries (Weingüter)—including a few with vending-machines after attending one tasting—which came to our campsite—and another in the historic Zehnthof, which delivered the cases we selected to the campground the next morning. Many of these buildings sourced to bureaucracies and tax regimes, began in medieval times because these “tithe farms,” originally storehouses for a tenth of harvests (see previously) collected by governing monasteries and other beneficent organisations from farmers individually were later given to a commissioned decimator to collect from tenants—the warehouses (see also) becoming stately manor homes for the overseers. 

 With the the end of ecclesiastical estates, this institution fell in the hands of prominent vintners representing the local industry. According to local lore, the name Katzenkopf comes from a woman who tried to dissuade her husband from drinking wine straight from the barrel and succeeded finally by frightening him into sobriety with a stuffed cat—otherwise a quick swat as a term for light corporal punishment of blow with the knuckles to the forehead.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Madonna (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: Russia displeased with continued sanctions, emotional granularity plus drone delivery

eight years ago: a poem by Brian Bilston, a elevated superbus plus Thomas Edison’s clickbait

nine years ago: a visit to the Rennsteig plus more on Venus Flytraps

ten years ago: armchair coaching, Israel eavesdropping plus indoctrinating radio

mara nags mara sang mara snag (11. 741)

Courtesy of Web Curios, we are directed to this wonderful little tool that lets you type in any word or phrase you like and it will generate all possible anagrams (see previously here and here)—also in German, French and Spanish. Who knew that PfRC contained such substantial words as superhero, heretofore, theretofore, prosecutor, prefecture and usherette? Out of more than a hundred thousand three-word solutions, I haven’t found the perfect phrase yet—but perhaps creeper effects roofer quoth or scoffer croquet thereof peer are pretty good candidates. In addition to an aid for word puzzles, I think that this could also be useful for creating memorable passwords, or finding the hidden epithet in your name. Jeremy’s Hammer?

one-trick pony (11. 740)

Medalling for Team USA for the first time in the category of men’s gymnastics since 2008, it was fun to read the profile of this newly hailed hero, Stephen Nedoroscik, and his achievement on the pommel horse. Usually for the all-around competition, national teams choose an assortment of generalists for a range of events but for this summer’s Games, the American squad reserved one of those slots for a specialist to compete on the notorious challenging apparatus—originally a Roman teaching aid for mounting and dismounting and included in the ancient Olympic Games and was revived in its modern form in the nineteenth century by members of the Turnverein, garnering notice whilst waiting his turn on the sidelines during his teammates’ matches. Qualifying for the finals with a bronze, Nedoroscik is going for gold over the weekend.

eyechat (11. 739)

Via the always marvellous Nag on the Lake, we are directed to the latest project from Neal Agarwal (see previously) that pairs random strangers’ eyes in a video call, with no audio and no chatter, just focused on the narrow slit of one’s face, in order to appreciate the quiet and how much expression, connection happens within this band. I am no sure how matches are made—whether pre-recorded or two people live checking in at the same time but feel confident it’s above-board.

synchronoptica

one year ago: American Graffiti (with synchronoptica) plus backlinks and hat-tips

seven years ago: generative inspirational quotations, mapping the globe’s most spoken languages post a possessed podcast

eight years ago: assorted links to revisit plus a vertical forest in Milan

ten years ago: a deck of cards, Taishō Era art, disobedient objects plus wine maps

fourteen years ago: filming locations in Germany

🧭 (11. 738)

Via the Map Room, we are directed to Map Happenings’ tenth instalment of cartographic innovations (previously) that changed how we navigate in this in the long tail of that led to the founding and subsequent demise of MapQuest. A printing concern in Lancaster, Pennsylvania—notably in Amish country, a culture that famously eschews the transportation and technological developments that lead up to our subject, established in the mid-nineteenth century by one Richard Robert Donnelley, which acquired clients commissioning catalogues, magazines, telephone directories and marketing material convinced oil companies to distribute road maps (in the same vein as Michelin guides) for drivers and distributors ultimately a century later to Donnelley Cartographic Services and in 1990 a partnership with a startup called Spatial Data Services, accruing more clients in the industries of car-rental, travel agents, real-estate and motoring associations. Within a few years, accelerated and informed by the burgeoning internet, MapQuest was formed and expanded globally—the first (dis)service to offer geocentric advertising and satellite imagery. I can remember carrying around printouts for various itineraries, creased and well-worn or otherwise. Much more at the links above.

i miss lorina bulwer well known by that name (11. 737)

Via Nag on the Lake we are referred to the rather sad and anguished life of needleworker Lorina Bulwer through her lengthy embroidered autobiographic tapestries created after becoming an inmate of a workhouse in Great Yarmouth and consigned to the Female Lunatic Ward. These samplers—see also—contain a message of protest for her station and predicament, likely institutionalised by her brother after the death of her parents, her life’s history with some possibly creative genealogy—these artefacts first coming to the public’s attention after being misattributed to Baroness Rosina Bulwer Lytton similarly falsely confined by her novelist husband. Click through at the link up top for a full transcript of the longest (over four metres) hand-stitched missive, in all capital letters and with no punctuation, which makes this quiet legacy all the more poignant.

number one observatory circle (11. 736)

In anticipation of a new highly incriminating tape to be released the following week (see previously) that would likely result in impeachment or resignation, White House chief of staff Alexander Haig came to visit the vice presidential couple in their home in Alexandria, Virginia, the Fords not having yet had the chance to move to the official residence after the departure of Spiro Agnew and Ford’s elevation—urging him to be prepared to step up for his new role. Ford replied, “Betty, I don’t think we’re ever going to live in the vice president’s house. Meanwhile the same day congressional leadership scheduled the impeachment trial and approved gavel-to-gavel television coverage of proceedings.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the publication of Dune (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus Trump indicted for a third time

seven years ago: modern day presidential, alien ctenophores plus more links to enjoy

eight years ago: lavish lodgings for bees, isolating effects of technology, permanent botanicals plus augmented realities

ten years ago: the Croatian language

eleven years ago: Revivalist architecture plus classic book jackets as ice-cream flavours

chiliad (11. 735)

Via Curious Notions, we learn the above term from the Ancient Greek χῑλιάς for a grouping a thousand things mostly encountered in modern English in the form of chiliastic, a Christian doctrine associated with the a thousand-year period of peace and prosperity the would follow the return of Jesus or—synonymously—believe in an apocalyptic millennium. Used generally to denote large in number or uncountable, it is on tenth of a myriad (M̄, the subject numeral rendered as X̄, with the largest Greek exponent M̄M̄ denoting a hundred million—see previously)), probably from the Greek word for swarming ants (μύρμηξ) and both can be used as a noun or adjective (distinguished in the cases “chiliad reasons” or “a myriad of reasons”) with hyper-pedantically, as with decimate, the former citing exactly a thousand causes and the former meaning a diverse basket of them.

somewhat agree (11. 735)

Via tmn, we become more familiar with the pervasive rating scale used on polls, research questionnaires and surveys, a range of response choices that are immediately recognisable, but that we didn’t know that the psychometrics are called the after their namesake, social psychologist Rensis Likert. Also developing ostensibly the antithesis in open-ended interviewing—to glean more information from respondents on their perspectives and preferences but filtered with a funnelling technique that narrows down answers towards a given goal—and management system styles that are also pretty well-known and pop-up on leadership and workplace satisfaction assessments too: Exploitative Authoritative, Benevolent Authoritative, Consultative, Participative, the scale of agreement and disagreement and measure of intensity has slowly seeped out academics and test markets to rankings, reviews and instant feedback quantified for everything. How likely are you to recommend the Likert scale to your colleagues?

commonwealth electoral act (11. 734)

Receiving Royal Assent on this day in 1924 by George V in his capacity as King of Australia, the collection of statutes governing eligibility and processes established compulsory voting for referenda and federal elections for enrolled, registered voters. In effect a century later, individuals who fail to cast a ballot face not insignificant fines if unable to give an adequate excuse. Inspired by low turn out during the 1922 by-elections and local and state mandates already in place in Queensland, participation jumped instantly from under sixty percent to over ninety. No explicit requirement is made to vote for any candidate and abstention is possible, only to enrol, show up to a polling station, mark the ballot and go into the voting booth, with whatever the mark signifies left up to the conscience of the individual (a secret ballot a radical idea), with early-voting and mail-in ballots as options offered to avoid sanction. While having consistent levels of engagement, some have lobbied against the practise, calling it paternalistic and claiming that involuntary participation illegitimates the outcome for those who disagree or hold no opinion. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: life as an expression of the laws of thermodynamics plus Einstein’s brain

eight years ago: vintage Cuban propaganda, a visit to a vineyard plus Portugal’s experiment with drug decriminalisation

nine years ago: more links to enjoy plus time zone deviants

ten years ago: arming Israel and Russian incursions in Ukraine, the Pope on fostering happiness, more adventures in Croatia plus Apple fashion

 

monty hall enlightenment (11. 733)

Via Quantum of Sollazzo, we are invited to revisit the sometimes fiercely and vehemently counterintuitive probability puzzle based on the TV game show Let’s Make a Deal. Though it is easy to demonstrate that one should always switch doors, have a two out three chance of winning rather than staying with one’s original choice, there are an array of perfectly unreasonable factors that at play that make people stick with their original bet and believing the odds to be even, whereas they’re only ⅓ as likely to not walk away with a prize goat, the dilemma and its trenchant nature says a lot about human bias and errors of commission. Even mathematicians and physicists come to the wrong conclusion until being disabused (sometimes it never takes as our original selection is endowed by magical thinking and those times when we switch and lose cling to our minds more) by brute repetition or by positioning themselves as host and realising that certain protocols are followed in games of chance. This is a specific and tenacious example which illustrates our withering capacity for judgment but I wonder if there are analogous other odds that we similarly misunderstand.

7x7 (11. 732)

autotopia 2000: a consumerist satire from animation team Halas and Batchelor, best-known for their adaptation of Animal Farm 

broligarchs: the Trump-Vance tax proposal that is courting the support of Silicon Valley billionaires 

supermarket sweep: a monograph on graphic designer Ted Eron, who was responsible for the aesthetics of the food aisle  

kamal holding vinyls: Ms Harris will display your favourite album covers—via kraftfuttermischwerk  

run: an appreciation of the consequential and formative programming language BASIC—see previously—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

i’m a little teapot, short and stout: the analogy from Betrand Russell that shifts the philosophical burden of proof to the party making unfalsiable claims  

goalball: a team of animators illustrate explainers for Paralympic events

synchronoptica

one year ago: Christian comics (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus Molson Ice Rocks for Canada

seven years ago: Ottoman bird palaces plus superstitious etiquette

eight years ago: the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary and other mythical beasts plus custom automatons

nine years ago: Esperanto enthusiasts plus a helpful cheese chart

ten years ago: William Barker’s Schwa

midnight special (11. 731)

As our faithful chronicler informs, the Dick Ebersol production for NBC, previously in the role of Director of Late Night programming, debuted the music video and variety programme to capitalise on the popularity of MTV on this day in 1983, airing for nearly two decades though in the end mainly featuring stand-up comedians. Having co-created Saturday Night Live with Lorne Michaels and displacing the Canadian-import sketch-show SCTV, this segue block on broadcast television was far more widely available than its cable originator and was further simulcasted on affiliate radio for a stereo listening experience. Popular segments included the “Video Vote” request line and celebrity cohosts, often pairing network celebrities, like the casts of The Cosby Show, The Facts of Life, Kate & Allie, Growing Pains, Cheers and Family Ties as well as prominent musicians as video-jockeys.